Nuclear microprobe — Applications

A nuclear microprobe can be used for elemental analysis and structural characterization, or as a tool for local energy or charge deposition.

The principle and equipment are described in the first part of this report [P 2 563] .

Since the first edition of this study in 1995, the field of application of nuclear microprobes has continued to grow. These applications concern elemental analysis in disciplines as varied as solid state physics, metallurgy, geochemistry, biology and medicine, environmental sciences, archaeology... Spectacular developments have also been seen in non-analytical applications, particularly in the life sciences (ion-by-ion irradiation), materials science (micromachining) and microelectronics (time-resolved measurements of beam-induced charges). In 2004, it is clear that the full potential of this tool has yet to be explored.